Evans and Tidemand impress greatly in Rally Argentina.

When the second part of the Friday run in Rally Argentina was during the evening Swedish time, Elfyn Evans continued with strings on ss6, the first after long service. The British then expanded the line to Mads Östberg as advanced past Jari-Matti Latvala.

More problem for Latvala

Just Latvala had high temperature problems in its Toyota Yaris WRC, the car went into safety mode and hit the power, three total with 53 seconds to the leader, 6.3 seconds ahead is Mads Östberg and 4.3 seconds behind Sebastien Ogier.

Ogier talks that he is charging hard – there is no more to give the Frenchman a comment he repeated throughout the afternoon.

Hyundai has woken up

The SS7 was significantly better in quality and it was tight and even, Elfyn Evans and Hayden Paddon shared time, only tenths between the five fastest.

Out on ss8, Friday’s last long stretch, Hayden Paddon took the stretcher before Evans. Lost time did Jari-Matti Latvala after turning off the tire from the rim, weighing for rock also made Sebastien Ogier bending a steering wheel and losing seconds.

The final audience stretched Thierry Neuville home, the Hyunda team found everything better in the settings during the afternoon and drove in time.

Evans in sole management

Overall, Elfyn Evans leads 55.7 seconds ahead of Mads Östberg, who is hardly guarded by several drivers. Thierry Neuville, Sebastien Ogier, Ott Tänak and Jari-Matti Latvala are separated by just a few seconds.
Hayden Paddon, Lorenzo Bertelli and Juho Hänninen fill up top nine in the WRC class.

Tidemand expires

In the WRC2 class, the lead increased significantly for Pontus Tidemand and Jonas Andersson, when former two-year Gustavo Saba lost 15 minutes, they now have Pedro Heller three minutes behind him! Extended another 36 seconds in the second night and 43 seconds on ss8.

Pontus Tidemand has dominated the WRC2 class, albeit in opposition, leading 4:30 minutes before Pedro Heller and 5:22 minutes before Juan Carlos Alonso.

Saturday is the longest day

The Saturday appetite starts at 13 o’clock, in the afternoon and in the evening six waiting stretches – three stretches that go twice and it’s the longest day with 16 miles special!
Rally Argentina 2017:

Now presenting the Yaris WRC Toyota Gazoo Racing will compete in the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), together with the drivers and co-drivers.

After 17 years of absence Toyota is now back as a factory team in the rally and set up in the World Rally Championship in 2017 with two newly developed Yaris WRC cars.

Over a year with thousands of hours of development and testing behind the race cars that are now almost ready for the first race in Monte Carlo just over a month.

Yaris WRC is built entirely in accordance with the FIA ​​technical regulations for 2017 and belongs to the new generation of rally cars which will add a new dimension to this motor sport’s top series. Under the hood, the Toyota cars 1.6-liter direct injection turbo engine of 380 horsepower driving all four wheels through a 6-speed gearbox.

Before the 2017 season, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s team manager Tommi Makinen contracted a helfinskt team of drivers and co-drivers:

Jari-Matti Latvala’s first driver, and run together with co-driver Miika Anttila. Jari-Matti Latvala is a very experienced rally driver who made his debut as a 17-year-old in the World Rally Championship in 2002. He has 169 starts and 16 WRC victories in the back.

Andre Drivers are Juho Hänninen, who compete for the Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC together with co-driver Kaj Lindstrom. Although Juho Hänninen has extensive rally experience and has actively participated in the development of the Yaris WRC car from the beginning.

As a test driver, the team announces 2016 WRC 2 winner Esa-Pekka Lappi, who will run together with co-driver Janne Ferm.

The first round of the 2017 WRC championship year’s Rally Monte-Carlo, which runs on 20-22 January. The 10 to 12 February, the Swedes have the chance to see Toyota’s new rally cars compete in the Swedish Rally in Varmland forests.

The reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier drove the fastest on the final stretch and won the Swedish Rally for the third time.

– It’s been a fantastic weekend. I’m so glad to be back here and get another victory. I love the Swedish Rally. We had difficult conditions in the beginning, but the organizers have done a very good job.

Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen took the second best time at the distance and also got two additional World Cup points. The last World Cup points on the route went to Kris Meeke.

Hayden Paddon drove on a stick at the end of the stretch and got in trouble with the radiator that leaked water at the finish line. It now applies to Paddon to get to Karlstad to secure his second place.

The Cyprus Rally event is around the corner once again. The event will occur between 25th-27th of the month of September, and the sporting event will be held in Nicosia. The event is expected to host the traditional FIA regional championship which will feature the 5th round of FIA middle-east championship and 8th round of the FIA European Rally respectively. As a result, the Cyprus Rally event is expected to be a unique one this year.

Information from a press release depict that participation will take place in 16 different stages. The cars are expected to cover a distance of 664.18Km long. In fact, this is the only FIA regional championship Rally in the world that will do 5 and 8 rounds respectively.

According to the President of the Cyprus Automobile Association Antonis Michaelides, the special stages of this Rally event will occur on September 26th, and will go through Nicosia using the Green line route as is the tradition since 1974.

In addition to this, the Cyprus government and authorities have been informed about this special event, and they’ve given their go-ahead. The Rally organizers have also teamed up with the UN peace-keeping forces in the area to ensure that everything goes according to plan.

The terms and conditions of the super special stages will take effect throughout the event. He also added that Cyprus Automobile Association was the only sponsor who was also responsible for the entire event.

The special stages will be mainly situated in the Nicosia and Larnaka areas, where the cars will be driven on different road surfaces, e.g. tarmac, gravel and so forth.

The special Rally event will commence and finish in Larnaka district since the organizers have chosen this district as the host.

At the moment, organizers are making final preparations to see that everything runs according to plan. Action is set to begin on Friday morning as they battle for the qualifying stage.

On 25th of September (Friday afternoon at 18h30), the cars are expected to line up in Finikoudes to take part in the ceremonial start. After this, they are expected to go back to the service park, still in Nicosia. However, the race will kick off the next day, which will be on Saturday 26th. The cars will be competing in 8 special stages the same day.

Starting at Parc Ferme on 06h30, the cars will zoom off to Kotsiatis for their 15,20Km stage. This will be followed by Lithrodontus and Lagia respectively. They will finish their 11,42Km race at Klavdia, after which the drivers will return to the service park for rest and repairs.

After this, they are expected to commence at 11h38 to go through all the stages in the afternoon. Again, the organizers have stated that there will be a small difference in the Saturday loops, followed by the second loop which will see the cars racing at Lithrodontus, going through Lagia and finally Klavdia.

The 4th stage will still take place on the same day, and will feature the Super Special Stage. Again, all races will commence in the capital of Nicosia. The race will be flagged off at 17h15, and the first car is expected to get back to the service park at 18h21.

On Sunday 27th, the race will begin at 08h00. The remaining rally crew will go through the 13,14Km in Geri and finally 11,41Km in Agia Marina. This will be followed by the 3rd stage of the race going through Kelia and Tseri (09.93Km and 13,14Km respectively). This will mark the end of the morning loop. Once they’ve taken a rest, the cars will prepare to repeat the 4 stages in the afternoon. The Ceremonial Finish will be held in Finikoudes at 18:30, marking the end of the competition.

Both the organizing committee and the drivers association have been briefed about the FIA rules as a reminder, plus they’ve also been told about testing and how this will be enforced strictly.

The rules state that no crew or driver should be seen at the racing stages with or without a car other than the days designate for testing. Otherwise, hefty penalties will be leveled against the offender.

Many people like to take part in rally racing – some as spectators, while others as pilots or co-pilots. The rally is actually a form of sport – auto racing, which is organized on private or public roads, and it is very different than the rallies that you see on circuits. This is not Formula 1 and there are no racing cars like the ones you see on circuit – instead, there are specially prepared cars to develop high speed an easy control over them on different terrains.

The drivers usually come with their own cars and if they have sponsors, they will help the driver invest more money in car parts and other things the driver needs. However, this is not an easy sport – it’s full of adrenaline and it’s a good way to entertain everyone, both men and women alike.

Here are some insights about this sport, with both the good and the bad parts of it.

The Drivers

Anyone can be a driver in a rally, but of course you need to have experience and also passion. The last one – the passion – is what helps you build experience, because if you don’t like driving a car, you will never drive a car in a rally. However, the drivers need to have good skills that come only with a lot of practice, but also good knowledge of mechanics. They prepare their cars to be able to develop more speed and power, and mechanical knowledge is good to have in this case. Apart from this, you need to know what is possibly wrong with a car, as sometimes the car stops functioning and you need to be able to tell why this happens.

The Rally Types

There are two types of rallies – the stage rally and the road rally.

Since this sport appeared in 1960, the stage rally has been the professional side of this sport. The stage rally means that the cars will race over a straightforward direction on a road closed to other kind of traffic. There are allowed spectators, but with adequate safety measures. The road can be anything, from forest tracks to mountains roads, snow, desert, ice and other types of roads. Here is tested the car’s reliability and performance, along with providing a good challenge for the driver and the crew.

The road rally usually takes place on roads opened to normal traffic, and the speed is not so important. More important are the navigation skills and the vehicle’s reliability, proved on long distances on difficult roads. The road rally has different branches, mostly for amateurs, and these test the accuracy, the problem solving and the navigation skills of the drivers.

The Risks

This is one sport that presents plenty of risks, for everyone involved – drivers, co-pilots and spectators. Accidents can happen at any given time, and no matter the precaution measures that were taken by the organizers, someone can get hurt. The risks of rally racing are not to be overlooked, and no matter how you take part in one, you need to be careful.

For drivers, there are more risks, as they need to have the right skills for driving the cars. There is usually a lot of speed involved in this kind of racing, and one moment of hesitation can lead to a severe accident. At high speed, the accidents usually end up with life threatening situations for everyone involved – driver, co-pilot and spectators.

For spectators it’s even more tragic, as they are not guilty of anything but simply being willing to take part in an entertainment event. If a driver loses control over the car and hits the spectators’ area, nothing can prevent them from being hurt. It’s something that everyone acknowledges when they accept to go to such event. You can read more on the risks of rallies here, but it’s important to be conscious of the choice you make when you go to any kind of rally.

Aside from the immense sport of the FIA WRC World Rally Championship we'd like to announce a recent financial sponsor of Cyprusaa.org.

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